Novi Sad

Enter Novi Sad: beyond Exit festival

Each July, thousands of merrymakers roll into the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad for the mammoth EXIT festival, which celebrated its 15th birthday in 2015. Many of them roll out having seen little else but stages, strobes and the Danube-side fortress that hosts the four-day music-and-mayhem-fest. But the city is more than a festival receptacle: more easygoing than big-sister Belgrade but just as engaging, Novi Sad is worth leaving your tent for. EXIT? Enter!

Baroque clock tower at Novi Sad’s Petrovaradin Citadel. Image by Nikola Nastasic / iStock / Getty Images

Tamara Sheward

Lonely Planet Writer

A beginner’s guide to Serbia

Picture everything you want from a classic European country, then add a level of quirk that you won’t find anywhere but the Balkans. Serbia is one of Europe’s more sizeable countries, yet it remains largely overlooked by travellers who tend to flock westward rather then venturing east.

The ambiguous Balkans history hasn’t quite let go its grip, but headlines on Serbia are deservedly moving from the news pages to the travel section. This underrated destination in the European traveller’s mindset is a sitting duck for those who hunt memorable experiences.

Marika McAdam

Lonely Planet Writer

Europe’s foodie secret: Serbian cuisine

Serbia is not a quiet place. People here are gleefully loud, rambunctious and given to expressing themselves through gesticulations which make the Italians look like wallflowers. The country’s cuisine is equally boisterous, a riotous fusion of Turkish, Hungarian and Mediterranean influences that zing the palate, fill the stomach and linger on the hips. After light and healthy? California’s thatta way. Get your belly rumbling, Balkan-style, with this menu of criminally caloric tastebud-teasers. Prijatno (bon appetite)!

Paprika is Serbian cuisine's all-rounder. Image by Olga Pavlovsky / CC BY 2.0

Tamara Sheward

Lonely Planet Writer